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But 30-40 years ago cars were much, much slower. A 65 perfromance mustang Shelby 350 GT only got 0-60 mph in 7.5 seconds. Now there are many sedans and even some SUVs that can equal that speed.
Pumping brakes with ABS has no detrimental effect. Think about it, steady pressure on ABS pulses (pumps) the brakes several times a second. This is magnitudes beyond any pumping a mere human can apply.
Brake On!
MidCow
I was looking in the owners manuel and it says you should change the oil every 10,000 miles. The dealer says every 5,000 miles, I thought that it was about every 3,000 miles. What is right to keep the warranty up to date?
Thanks
The number of times a typical car sees the activation of the ABS system is very, very few. If one was driving so that the ABS activated every day, I'd venture to guess that things would wear out faster than normal (and something is wrong with that person's driving habits). If someone is pumping the brakes on every stop day in and day out that has to put wear on the system that normal braking doesn't. This issue has nothing to do with the car having ABS or not. You just don't need to pump brakes on any car less than 30 years old.
Honda 4 CYL now have a normal interval of 10,000 miles and a severe interval of 5,000.
If you don't have real short drives ( less than 15 minutes) and quite a bit of highway driving and no dusty conditions then you are nromal, otherwise probably severe. Somewhere around 5,000-7,500 is good for 4 cylinders. If you just want to keep warranty up-to-date you could get by with 10,000 change interval. You can check your oil periodically and determine you exact needed interval.
Cruis'n in 6th :shades:
MidCow
"This issue has nothing to do with the car having ABS or not. You just don't need to pump brakes on any car less than 30 years old."
What are you talking about?
In emergency stops to provide maximum stopping without locking up the wheels the brakes need to be pumped. If you have ABS then, ABS automatically pumps the brakes. If you don't have ABS, and many cars in the last 30 years if not most cars, do not have ABS brakes.
The primary reason you don't want the brakes to lock up is so that you can still steer the car. If you lock up the brakes you lose sterring ability and skid forward in the current direction of travel.
The brakes in 1970 cars were very, very weak even with optional front disk brakes. Stopping distances were much, much longer. tire quality was much less. I know I had a new 1970 442 4-speed. The true muscle car era.
Time to Move on,
Cruis'n in 6th :shades:
MidCow
Just make sure that your service includes ONLY the items specified by Honda in your Owner's Manual. Dealers usually add lots of unnecessary tasks to inflate the price. For instance, at my 15,000 mile service they tried to sell me on a transmission flush for about $79.00. Honda recommends it at something like 105,000 miles.
We have paid for repairs to the power steering, electrical system, brakes, CV joints, radiator, transmission, etc. - none related to the oil.
If an engine would last 250,000 miles with frequent oil changes and only 60,000 with very few, it really wouldn't matter if you dumped the car at 50,000 miles.
If you thought you could sell the car at a higher price because you produced a record of frequent oil changes and other maintenance, that's a consideration......Richard
As far as oil interval, I would not hesatate to run 10k intervals with synthetic but I change the filter at 5k. I just sold a 04 Saturn Vue witht he 3.5 Honda engine and it had a oil life monitor on it and the last change went 9k.
Thanks for any help.
I was shocked. my own car went in last week and I received a call asking for more time to resurface the rotors and replace the back brakes. at 24000. How long has this been going on. In passing most the evaluations of the Accord were very positive.
Were those "evaluations" for the 2005 Accord? If so, that would be strange, since brakes were only an issue on some 2003 and some early 2004 Accords. My 2004 Accord Coupe has been perfect in all respects since December 2003.
Now, how often you should be changine the oil, will only lead to unending arguments here.
I've changed the oil and filter every 4,000 miles in all kinds of my vehicles, for the last 40 years.
I really, really hope this doesn't start the 'when I change the oil' arguments.
If I had side airbags and curtain airbags for just this kind of accident, I would expect them to have deployed. We'll hear all kinds of excuses why they didn't, but I'd like to see a picture and then my recommendation would be to contact an attorney specializing in this kind of failure for automotive cases who can have determined by specialists whether the airbags should have deployed.
The injury should have been reduced by airbags having deployed based on your initial description.
There was a report of an accident months ago in one of these discussion where an airbag didn't deploy in a frontal impact.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
across this. This might also explain why the rear pads wear out faster than the front besides thinner rear pads.
http://automobiles.honda.com/info/news/article.asp?ArticleID=2002072936652
Look under Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD).
This statement is false. In ABS-equipped vehicles, pumping the brake turns the system on and off:
http://www.nsc.org/library/facts/abs.htm
I appreciate your concerns to "improve my gas mileage and increase the horsepower in a small way. I would like to know and get some feedback on the best spark plugs and wires, the best air filter, and little things like that, that will, as I mentioned, give me better gas mileage and slightly increase my horsepower." However, scuttlebut and advertising hype notwithstanding, none of those types of modifications is likely to affect your vehicle in any major way.
It's easy to increase your gas mileage by modifying your driving habits (less aggressive starts, steadier pressure on the accelerator, less braking, less use of your air conditioner, etc.) All of those cost you nothing but a few seconds longer to get from point A to point B and a bit less fun. But, if you are looking for more horsepower, that's another matter. In fact, it's guaranteed that the more power you have (or use) the lower your gas mileage will be. It's pure physics.
Unless you go to a major expense, horsepower gains will be minimal with 95 or more percent of the gadgets claiming to make a difference. Save your money and enjoy your ride with OEM parts.
Keep the air pressure up in the tires. Maybe run 2 pounds over the recommendation.
You cars manual probably says the plugs and wires will last 100,000 miles. I recommend at 50,000 or 60,000 it might pay to replace both. No reason to do this sooner.
Don't buy K&N aircleaner, Toronado 'air turbine' devices, maganetic fuel polarity aligners, etc. These things don't work.
More horsepower takes more fuel. You don't get both. Although there are some very powerful motors that get very good milage. A late model Corvette with a 6 speed will get 28-31mpg at 65 or 70mph. A Cadillac Northstar will pull the heavy Deville to 25-28mpg at 70mph.
Just maintain you car according to the owner's manual service intervals.
Thanks
Still, as reliable as Hondas are, they can and sometimes do have problems. that's why we have warranties in place. No, you shouldn't smile and nod your heads and go on your merry way. You have every right to be frustrated.
But, before you do something rash out of anger and frustration, remember that Toyotas and EVERY other make of car out there are apt to do the same thing or worse. I honestly think these problems are isolated and your Accord is far from being a lemon.
Hopefully your nightmare is over and you can put this behind you. If not, you probably SHOULD sell it and move on if you are going to constantly worry about additional problems.
Just my two cents...
Sorry to hear things turned out so badly.
1) What they are according to a vendor:
A device attached to the fuel delivery system, "...applying a magnetic field to ionizing fuel to be fed to combustion devices we can ensure more complete combustion, obtaining a maximization of the fuel economy, improving the fuel efficiency and reducing polluting emissions"
http://trade.allproducts.com/show_message.php?sn=78217
2) Here's the Federal Trade Commission's advisory on such a device:
"...the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has evaluated or tested more than 100 alleged gas-saving devices and has not found any product that significantly improves gas mileage. In fact, some "gas-saving" products may damage a car's engine or cause substantial increases in exhaust emissions..."
Devices below "...have been found not to increase fuel economy...
...Fuel Line Devices (magnets). These magnetic devices, clamped to the outside of the fuel line or installed in the fuel line, claim to change the molecular structure of gasoline."
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/autos/gasave.htm
wow, that's some big load of BS. It's pretty awesome that we can change the molecular structure of gasoline using a few crappy magnets though
I certainly would be very wary of getting my car serviced at a dealer that can't put the power steering system back together correctly.
Honda has been known for years to have very firm seats with firm bolstering. Its one of there trademarks
Our 05 accord ex, 4, auto has very firm seats and we love them. Im 6' 3" 260 lbs, wife is 5' 2" and 135 lbs and the only seat position either of us change is front to back. She moves it all the way up and I move it all the way back. Recline and height are the same.
We once owned a Olds delta88 it had soft none supportive seats in it. We felt like we where seting in a bean bag.
It's something that's done all the time, and I would not worry at all as long as it is done correctly.
If you read the recall for 04 Accords due to transmission case issues, new cars on the dealer's lots had them replaced before the car was ever sold.
Honda doesn't do an OEM remote start. My dealer outsourced it and said all the others do as well. They wanted $699 (that was two months ago). I am going to have it done elsewhere- I can get it for $200.
Get this - we picked the car up from the dealership last night. They told us it would be done Tuesday but then they spent a little time addressing the SRS light that stayed on. They determined that they needed to replace some cable that held the airbags (yadda yadda). So they did that. Now there is a squeek when you turn the wheel and the blinkers won't go off after a turn! We are so fried on this! (Dealership is Continental Honda in Countryside, IL, by the way!!)
My husband had another conversation with our Honda Cust Service rep and the rep said if we do sell the car we shouldn't disclose that we felt it was unsafe!! After my husband told him that he couldn't ethically do that the rep said to disclose this but we'd surely have to take a substancial financial hit in doing so! Hello!! This is exactly our point. We have a car that we now feel isn't "sound." My husband drives (when he has a functioning car) to and from work on one of the fastest, busiest freeways in the nation in the 3rd largest city in the country and into one of the worst parts of this city!!
What should Honda do for us in this case? What should we be asking for? They all say they want to "work with us" but what does that mean? Keep trying to fix this car and keep the ball of problems rolling? We bought a brand new car and have had more problems with it than any used car we've ever owned! I feel like a fair deal would be for Honda (not the same dealership!!) to give us top trade in dollar and a great deal on a new one. I think we'd be happy with that but they offer nothing and keep telling us to keep bringing it back for repair!!! They should take the loss on this - not us. We didn't do anything wrong!
Quite the saga!!!
Let them check out the turn signal switch before the warranty expires.
Thanks!
You wrote: I felt confident in their service work so they may have some insight for us." I thought that you had an Odyssey.
http://automobiles.honda.com/models/model_overview.asp?ModelName=Insight&bhcp=1&BrowserDet- ected=True
Right now we sit with an 02 Odyssey and 04 Accord. By the way, my husband is on the phone with American Honda right now to follow up with our Cust Service guy who told us he'd get back to us today. He's already gone home for the day. So the husband got out of the voice mail system and was told there were no records of our calls to customer service in their system. Nice, huh?
We contacted a Toyota dealership about a Camry and just for kicks contacted the BMW dealership about a 300 series. When my husband told the BMW dealer about his trade in (the problem car) the dealer said, "Well we will really have to check it out. We've had these cars come in and 3 days later the transmission goes out." WOW! But we kind of decided we didn't want to spend $31K for a car with vinyl interior!
On another tangent we may end up taking this car down to our old dealer for one more round of service. We bought this car to get 120K miles out of it, not 10K.
Remember - sales reps are there for ONLY one reason - that is to maximize their profit margin. Fact of the matter is - even with your "problems" - your car is one of the 3 highest value holding and reselling cars ON THE PLANET... the others include the Camry and the 2000+ Passat. Best thing they can do to maximize their profit margin, since you were only looking at an entry level 3 series BMW is to devalue your trade and then sell it at a much higher markup, which it will hold.
A dealer that says the car is worth less because it had something fail but was repaired is a dealer not to deal with. Would you have problems trading in a car that had worn out brakes that you fixed? Yes, bad brakes that were repaired is not as serious as a transmission, but it's not anything that devalues a car, so your car should not be devalued as well.
Mrbill
We had the car towed 40 miles to our old Honda dealer this morning. It now has a new leak and there was no way we were going to drive it anywhere. The car is in no position to be traded or sold in the condition it is in right now. We don't have confidence that the dealer installed the new transmission correctly, there is a new leak, the steering still squeeks and the blinker problem still exists. We faxed all of the repair records to the other dealer and gave them our Honda Cust Service contact information. We will see what they come back with in a few days.
(Meanwhile we had a microburst on our street last night - lost power, trees, etc. What a mess!!)
I think the combinations are as follows:
White, Black, Dark Green, Desert Mist: Tan interior;
Graphite, Red, Blue: Gray interior
Silver: Black interior.
There are 8 exterior colors and 3 interior colors. Tan is the most common followed by gray. Interesting that the only way to get the black interior is with Silver exterior (my '04 EX-L is silver with black and it's a beauty).
These color combinations are the same for both cloth and leather models.........Richard
http://www.1stoptireshop.com/html/tireratings.htm
mrbill